Happy Season everyone!

I'm out on Toronto Island with my family for the week. One of our family's Christmas traditions is making hand-dipped beeswax candles that we give to our friends and neighbours as gifts. My mom has been organizing this for as long as I can remember. We cover the dining room table with newspaper and heat up 4 different colours of beeswax on the stove. We make long, tapered candles. They are dipped in pairs, and then hung to dry and harden underneath the stairs (see above!!). We listen to some of our favourite folk records like Nowell Sing We Clear by John Roberts and Tony Barrand, and Frost and Fire by the Watersons. There's this really rich smell in the air - a mixture of beeswax, the Christmas tree, and the curry and mole sauces my dad makes. It's the best place to be this time of year!

This year both myself and kith&kin, the vocal group I have with my mom and sister, were included on holiday compilations put together by some great blogs. You can listen to Sound Vat's playlist "If Jesus had been born in Canada, he would have needed more than swaddling clothes" here, and British blog The Line of Best Fit's third annual Ho Ho Ho Canada comp here.

Some beautiful music to propel you into 2012!

Well it's three of us anyway. kith&kin is the vocal trio I sing in with my sister Martha, and our mom Kathleen. My dad Alec is our biggest fan, and when we're lucky he lends a penny-whistle solo to our songs! Music has always been a big part of the holidays for my family, but for the last 3 years kith&kin has put on a big holiday show. So, for me, performing with them has become integral to this time of year. I look forward to this show all year - all the beautiful music that is made, and all of the great people it brings together. This year, our Holiday Wassail is on December 15th at Toronto's Music Gallery, and it's sure to be amazing! (Details right here.) Tickets are now available at Soundscapes (572 College) and Rotate This (801 Queen West), or from kith&kin members. You can also listen to our album Yet Will I be Merry: Carols and Songs of the Season in the music section of this site.

kith&kin have just finished a weekend of performing. These two performances - in Prince Edward County and Ottawa - were our first-ever out of town shows! We had so much fun traveling as a family and bringing our songs to new audiences. One highlight was singing at dusk in the big old barn owned by our friends at By Chadsey's Cairns Winery. The show in Ottawa - which was a split bill featuring both kith&kin and myself (as myself, Ivy Mairi) - was so wonderful! It was an intimate concert in a house next to the Rideau River. My bandmates swear they heard geese honking outside during our set! We made a bunch of new friends in Ottawa and this is all due to the endless generosity of our friend Phil Nicholson, who organized the whole thing start to finish. Thank you Phil!

Last night I stayed up stuffing CDs. It's an activity many independent musicians know all about - assembling your own packaging saves dollars, and, if you're in good company, can actually be pretty fun. Last night we were stuffing the remaining copies of Yet Will I be Merry: Carols and Songs of the Season, the holiday album of lesser-known carols I made with kith&kin back in 2008. kith&kin is myself, my sister Martha, and our mother Kathleen. We sing traditional music, often a cappella. You can hear our songs on the 'music' section of this website!

All that CD stuffing is in anticipation of kith&kin's fourth annual Holiday Wassail on December 15th at the Music Gallery in Toronto. Our Wassail is a HUGE affair, complete with an 8-singer choir, a kids' Mummers Play, and of course kith&kin's beautiful 3-part harmonies. It all happens at the beautiful Music Gallery, which is housed inside St. George-the-Martyr Church. The Wassail is a wonderful musical and community event that has come to be one of my favourite days of the year! You can find all the details you need about the event here.

I'm also pleased to announce a special house concert next Sunday Dec 4th in Ottawa, which will be a split Ivy Mairi / kith&kin bill! My great friend Phil Nicolson is helping us put it on. Phil is the host of all hosts, so it should be a spectacular evening. It will be the first time Matt, Lucas, and I have all played together since I've been on tour with Bruce Peninsula, so I'm very excited. Space at this concert is very limited, so please email ivymairimusic@gmail.com for more info.

I'm home from tour, but I've got some sweet shows coming up next week.

First I'm in Guelph on November 14th doing a house show put on by the awesome folks at Community Music, with Your Neck of the Woods and the Geese who are on tour all the way from Vancouver. Check out both bands, they're awesome! Facebook event for more details - click here.

On Nov 16th I'm back in Toronto performing in a special show with Bruce Peninsula at the Dakota Tavern. BP is a large band, with as many as 10 members at some shows, but each of us makes our own music, too. On our October tour, we played a number of more intimate shows where we performed revue-style - alternating between acoustic versions of Bruce songs and the songs from our various solo projects. Now that the format has been sufficiently honed on the road, we're bringing it to our hometown! Don't miss the Bruce Trail Revue at the Dakota on Nov 16th! Details here

Here's a video of one of our revue-style songs, The Leaves. We made in St. John's NFLD with our friends from Heavy Weather.

Bruce Peninsula - The Leaves from HEAVYWEATHER on Vimeo.

We had an amazing time at the Halifax Pop Explosion this weekend. I played my first solo set in many months, and it felt so good! I must say that HPX fans are something else - the Bust Stop theatre was positively buzzing by the time I went up at the fashionable hour of 8:30PM!! It's not too often that you meet such a punctual audience, and one that actually listens no less! Halifax is the best place! I'm reminded a little more each time I go.

Toronto is now in my sights, and the first thing I've got to look forward to is a very special show at Hugh's Room on October 29th. The show features Latent Recordings' finest Cowboy Junkies, Finlayson/Maize (of Skydiggers fame), Cootes Leland, and myself. I'll play the show as a duo with Matt Bailey on electric guitar and mandolin. I'm so excited to share the stage with musicians who have been such an inspiration and source of guidance to me in this crazy creative business! A few months ago, I covered the Skydiggers song "Feel You Closer" for Mitch Fillion's website Southernsouls.ca. A tribute to my Latent family!

BRUCE PENINSULA - IVY MAIRI 'Feel You Closer' by The Skydiggers from Mitch Fillion (southernsouls.ca) on Vimeo.

That's a photo I took from the Newfoundland ferry this evening as we arrived! I'm out here on tour with my friends in Bruce Peninsula, an amazing band that I'm lucky enough to be a part of. We're touring the East Coast for the next two weeks until the Bruce Peninsula LP release party at Lee's Palace in Toronto on October 27th! Details about that are here.

While I'm out east, I'll be playing my own set at the Halifax Pop Explosion! I'll be playing solo, which I haven't done in a while, so I'm really excited. The show is on October 22nd at the Bus Stop Theatre. I play at 8:30pm, but you should also stick around for Bruce Peninsula's set at 11:30! Full show details are here.

It's been a busy Fall for me so far, with constant touring on my own and with Bruce Peninsula. I should mention that we finished off the Ivy Mairi/Long Haul tour in September with a great weekend of shows in the Montreal/Ottawa area, ending on a beautiful evening in Wakefield, Quebec, at the Blacksheep Inn. Here's a photo from the squaredance/concert event we did at By Chadsey's Cairns winery in Prince Edward County (for those who don't know - I moonlight as a squaredance caller!!).

Last night we finished off our run of East Coast shows with a last-minute house show organized by my friend Nick Everett (he's an amazing musician! Check him out here!) The show was a great potluck at Nick's home in Halifax. The great Willie Stratton opened the show, and then the Long Haul and myself shut the night down! What a Monday! Halifax people are the best!

We played two other great house concerts while we were in Nova Scotia - one in Antigonish, and another in Lunenburg on the South Shore. Both were really cool places to visit, as I have roots in the province. My dad was born on the South Shore, and I got to catch up with family outside of Antigonish. Big love to my friends Connie and Rebecca Roher (check out her art here!) for organizing these two shows. At the Lunenburg show, we were lucky enough to have our good friend (and South Shore baby) Jennah Barry play a set. Keep your eyes peeled for her new record, which should come out sometime next year. It will be amazing!

But the biggest love goes out to my tour-family, Matt, Lucas, and Kirty. We are having the best time! Here they are looking frozen after a night at a Quebec campground....

Tomorrow night we're home briefly for a night off, then we're off to Trois Rivieres, Prince Edward County, Montreal, and Wakefield next weekend!

Thursday's great vibes left us with tons of excitement as we begin our tour this weekend. During the next 3 weeks I'll be touring around Ontario, Quebec, and out to the East Coast with one of my favourite Toronto bands the Long Haul, which features my two bandmates Matt and Lucas. We've already had amazing shows playing for loved ones and new friends in Orillia, Port Perry, and Peterborough, and today we leave for 4 shows out on the East Coast! For full tour dates, see the TOUR section of this site.

My good friend Kirsten Scholte, who sings in the Long Haul, was kind enough to host us for the afternoon at her family home outside Orillia before our show. I rambled the fields with her hilarious dog Dani. Country living people!

See you in New Brunswick!

We’re celebrating with a big release party at Toronto’s Dakota Tavern this THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH! It’s an early show – 8-10pm, so don’t be late!

I’m so proud of this album, and I’m happy to say that we’ll have the full band in tow – Matt Bailey on guitar/mandolin, Lucas Gadke on bass, and Mike Brushey on drums. We’ll also be joined by our good friend Michael Eckert who will be guesting on pedal steel! AAAAND the whole evening will begin with a solo set by my great friend Sean Donald. Check out his beautiful music at www.myspace.com/seanpatrickdonald.

Here’s the beautiful poster, courtesy of the wonderful Sasha Plotnikova….

I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS NIGHT!!